This is a nationalization of PCT/NZ00/00113 filed Jun. 28, 2000 and published in English.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mooring apparatus and methods of providing moorings, in particular to moor boats, vessels or navigational buoys or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The mooring of ships, buoys and other floating objects can be provided by merely tying one end of a rope or cable to the object to be moored, the other end of such rope or cable being secured to an anchor or other fixed point. Although effective under ordinary circumstances, the tethering member may fail under highly adverse weather conditions, and, in any event the moored object is usually free to drift about the fixed point to which the rope or cable is attached.
Alternatively, and most traditionally used, mooring buoys are anchored offshore by way of a chain that is connected to a weight providing anchoring of the chain, the other end of the chain being connected to a floating buoy. The buoy is usually strapped to a non-metallic cable, such as a hawser. When a vessel is to be moored the hawser is passed through a fairlead on a vessel and fixed to a bollard on the deck of the vessel. A problem with this type of mooring system is that the chain is susceptible to corrosion over time, especially in salt water, therefore regular checking and changing of the chain and detachment from the anchor weight is required.
Accordingly the present invention has as an object the provision of alternative apparatus for anchoring mooring buoys that is durable and reusable.
In a first aspect the invention consists in mooring apparatus comprising or including:
a flexible, continuous, jointless elongate member encased within a flexible tube having a first end and a second end, and
a plurality of weights each secured and spaced along said tube encased elongate member, said first end adapted to be connected to an anchor weight and said second end adapted to be connected to a buoy,
wherein said tube encased elongate member has a plurality of spacing means interspersed between said weights.
In a second aspect the invention consists in a method of forming mooring apparatus which comprises the steps of:
a) taking a flexible, continuous, jointless elongate member encased within a flexible tube having a first end and a second end and locating thereon a plurality of weights,
b) attaching to said first end of said tube encased elongate member and anchor weight, and
c) attaching to said second end of said tube encased elongate member a buoy.
In a third aspect the invention consists in, in combination, mooring apparatus as previously defined, and an anchor weight connected to one end thereof and a buoy connected to the other end thereof.
In a fourth aspect the invention consists in a method of providing a mooring comprising or including:
securing to a line or lines one end of at least one flexible, continuous, jointless elongate member encased within a flexible tube having two ends and a plurality of weights each secured and spaced along said elongate member,
securing to the other end of said at least one tube encased elongate member an anchor weight, and
securing the line or lines to at least one buoy, which upon hauling onto a vessel enables the said at least one tube encased elongate member to be secured to the vessel.
In a fifth aspect the invention consists in a mooring apparatus comprising or including:
a plurality of flexible, continuous, jointless elongate members encased within a flexible tube having first ends and second ends, wherein a plurality of weights is each secured and spaced along each of said tube encased elongate members, and
said first ends of each of said plurality of tube encased elongate members are adapted to be connected to a respective one of a plurality of anchor weights and said second ends of said plurality of tube encased elongate members are adapted to be connected to a vessel.
To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptions herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.